Oil prices are moving higher today
Fresh off the Dow's best month since 1987, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are set to kick off May with a sharp move lower. Tech giants Apple (AAPL) and Amazon.com (AMZN) are weighing on Wall Street, with the former's revenue growth stagnating and the latter missing on earnings estimates. Futures on the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are signaling steep losses as well. Elsewhere, June-dated crude futures are up 6.7% at $20.11 per barrel, at last check.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- Call options were popular yesterday despite McDonald's earnings miss.
- It seems Tesla stock can do no wrong.
- Plus, Moderna inks COVID-19 vaccine deal; Clorox scores earnings beat; and Boeing announces big bond offering.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 1.4 million call contracts traded on Thursday, and 976,654 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.58, and the 21-day moving average fell to 0.64.
- Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) stock is up 3.2% in electronic trading, after the pharma name announced a deal with Swiss contract drugmaker Lonza Group AG, to manufacture up to a billion doses of its potential coronavirus vaccine. MRNA is up 135% in 2020, and hit a record high of $56.38 on April 21.
- Clorox Co (NYSE:CLX) stock is up 2.5% ahead of the bell, after the cleaning products company reported fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue that topped analyst estimates. CLX was up 21.4% year-to-date going into today.
- The shares of Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) are up 2% before the open, after the aerospace name announced a raised $25 million in bond offerings, enabling the company to avoid government aid. Boeing stock is down 57% year-to-date, stuck below the $150 level for the last two weeks.
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May kicks off with Markit manufacturing PMI, ISM manufacturing index, construction spending, and motor vehicle sales. Chevron (CVX) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) will step into the earnings confessional.
Asian Stocks Weigh Export Numbers
Most markets in Asia were closed for holiday with the exception of the Nikkei in Japan, which lost 2.8%. Meanwhile, South Korean export numbers sharply contracted in April, marking their steepest plummet since the financial crisis.
Bourses in Europe were also closed, with the exception of the London FTSE 100 in the U.K. The index dropped 1.9%, as investors nervously eyed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of retaliatory tariffs against China, brushing off promises from U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to put a plan in place effectively ending nationwide lockdowns.